“I had sex with Kara,” James mumbled into his breakfast, the smell of eggs making his a little queasy. He dragged his eyes to Fred, whose fork was paused midair. “Did I stutter?”

Fred blinked before opening his mouth. “Like sex sex? Or just hook-up almost sex?”

“Sex sex.”

“Oh.”

An awkward silence took over the two before James dug into his pocket. He grasped a small vile and took the top off before pouring the liquid into his mouth. Buying these hangover potions were probably the best idea he and Kara had ever had.

Sex. It was a three letter word he had never associated with his best friend. Sure, James had assumed that she had done the deed before, but had never thought about doing it with her. The fire whiskey probably had something to do with the outcome, but he was also aware that this was something he had subconsciously wanted. He had been looking at her more like a girl than a best friend recently. She had boobs and long hair and a contagious laugh. And all these things mixed together were dangerous to his health.

Fred had always told him it would happen, but he had always shrugged it off. It had been a stupid idea, and now that it had happened, James wanted it to happen again. And again.

“What happened after you had sex?” Fred asked, studying his friend. James shrugged.

“She said, and I quote ‘thank you for your cooperation, I’ll talk to you tomorrow’ and then picked up her clothes and made her way to the dorms. I sat there with my boxers on, very drunk and very confused.” James admitted, giving a smile before dropping his gaze to his eggs.

Fred snorted. “Sounds like a professional. Have you talked to her since?”

“Nope.”

“Charms should be fun.”

***

“I had sex with James last night,” Kara mentioned nonchalantly, yawning as she stretched on her bed.

Michelle screamed.

“Bloody hell, Michelle. Have you been drinking crazy juice? Keep is down!” Kara hissed, before burying herself under the covers of her warm bed. Her cocoon was interrupted when her best friend jumped on top of her, yelling complete nonsense.

“JAMES AND KARA SNOGGING IN THE COMMON ROOM. S-N-O-G-G-I-N-G. FIRST COMES LOVE. THEN COMES MARRIAGE. THEN COMES A DRUNKEN PENGUIN ON A BROOMSTICK!” Michelle belted out before bursting into giggles.

Kara stuck her head out from under the covers and stared blankly at Michelle. “Your logic makes no sense.”

Michelle shrugged. “I don’t really care, wanna know why? Because you had sex with James and the two of you are going to get married and have lots of adorable babies and cute things like that.”

“No we aren’t. We had sex. Friends can have sex.” Kara said, rolling out of her bed and stumbling around the dorm, looking for her uniform.

Michelle snorted as she rolled off the bed and made her way to the small mirror. Curling her eye lashes she snuck a peak at Kara. There was a certain glow about her best friend, something that had to do with her recent escapade. She just seemed lighter. “No they can’t, Kar. And you’re going to have to talk to him about what happened.”

Kara groaned in annoyance. She hated talking about serious things. She hated talking about sex. Hell, she hated talking about anything that didn’t involve her using sarcasm. And the topic of what she and James were could not involve sarcasm. “I hate talking.”

“You know you guys have Charms today, right?”

“Yup. We sit next to each other.”

Michelle giggled evilly. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun!”

***

Dragging her feet, Kara could see the classroom from a distance. She wasn’t mentally prepared for what was about to go on. Honestly, it was just sex. James had sex with girls all the time. She wasn’t a virgin, he wasn’t a virgin, and there was really nothing to talk about. How she had lost her virginity was a different story, a long and ignored story.

Michelle bounced in front of her, making her way towards Fred. The two exchanged some words before entering the classroom. Kara’s eyes moved back the door and her pace slowed even more. He was grinning at her, his smile bright, and his eyes were shinning. It was almost like he had a joke he was dying to tell her, but she wasn’t sure. For a moment, as she ventured closer, she hoped that he would wrap his arms around her waist and lift her up. But it didn’t happen. Instead, he walked up to her and smiled down.

“So I decided that you and I need to go on another prank escapade soon. I mean, you can plan most of it. It should probably be after the Ravenclaw match next week, because we’ll have practice all the time. Hopefully we won’t get too far behind in Potions, because we’re going to need to focus on the game. OH! You’re going to have to do double detentions, right? Right. I’ll schedule practice around it, no problem.”

Kara blinked and James gripped her arm before pulling her into the classroom. He was still rambling about how important it was to beat Ravenclaw, but Kara had stopped listening. Was he going to pretend that nothing had happened? Was that really how he was going to act? Well, she could do that. She could pretend that nothing had happened the night before and that everything was alright. Everything was alright, right?

Biting her lip, she took her quill out and a piece of parchment, refusing to sneak a glance at James. He was still rambling, and she could feel her annoyance rise. Couldn’t he see that she didn’t really care about whatever he was rambling about? Couldn’t he see that she was trying to take notes? “James, could you do me a favor and shut up?” she hissed.

James blinked, his mouth open, but curtly nodded. Kara sighed in relief. Thank god. There was silence. Professor Picoult kept glancing at the two, as though he was expecting the two to start spontaneous laughing. It didn’t happen. Kara felt the stares of people around them looking at her and James, but she ignored them. They were fighting about nothing, and she couldn’t help it. There was something between them, something that neither of them was willing to talk about.

The bell rang and Kara slowly began to get her things together, refusing to meet James’s eye. He was refusing to look at her, and the two slowly exited the classroom together. Kara began to turn to the left, ready to trudge to her next class, and James began to turn to the right.

James stopped and turned, his eyes looking at her back. The halls were pretty much empty except for the two of them and he sighed. He made his way over to her and grasped her arm, his eyes looking down at her.

Kara’s eyes met him and he felt his stomach explode with fluttering creatures. This was unusual. He wasn’t used to feeling this way. “Why aren’t we talking again?”

She shrugged, her eyes drifting back to the ground. “Because sex complicates things.”

That was the truth, and he had nothing to retort with. Her mouth was opening, ready to continue her thoughts when he kissed her. His hands wound their way into her hair and his lips acted according to his own. Her arms snaked their way around his neck and pulled him close. Somehow, the two made their way into a closet and committed the deed.

As their breathing began to slow, Kara leaned against the wall. The small closet was filled with an awkward silence and she let out a sigh. “We have to figure out how this thing is going to go. What are we right now?”

James thought about it. “I like having sex with you. And I like being friends with you.”

“True.”

“But I don’t want a relationship.”

Those words made Kara’s heart drop, but she refused to acknowledge this in his presence. “Well, we don’t have to have an emotional attachment. We could always just, you know, be friends with benefits. Have sex and then prank first years and go to Quidditch.”

James blinked. He didn’t even know that that was an option. In a way, it would only complicate things, but it also seemed like the best solution. He wanted to have sex and not feel the need to cuddle or forced to spend time with someone. “That could work.”

“Friends with benefits?”

“Friends with benefits.”

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